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Combining Modern Meditation with EFT

By Patricia Carrington

Long before I became involved with EFT, I was working extensively with the modern forms of meditation. I researched them, taught them, wrote books about them, and created new methods of applying them. Clinical meditation was, in fact, the foundation of my therapeutic work until the mid-1980’s. It laid the groundwork for my later deep involvement with energy psychology methods, which of course are its newly birthed cousins.

Recently, I met up with someone who was familiar with my training methods and writings on meditation, and who asked me, naively, “Why did you leave meditation for EFT? Do you think EFT is that much better?”

I was taken aback by this question; I have never stopped meditating since I first learned this method in the early 1970’s. I have never ceased to recommend it to others whom I think would benefit from it, and it remains an important resource in my practice as a clinical psychologist. However, EFT has now become the center of my therapeutic work. In fact, however, the two methods combine so naturally in my practice that I had scarcely noticed how much they do so until I was asked this question.

I want to share with you some information on how meditation, quite naturally and powerfully, can enhance the effects of EFT, and how it can substantially improve the results you may get when using it for yourself or with your clients if you are a therapist or life coach.

In explaining the benefits that practicing a modern form of meditation can bring to your work with EFT, I am reminded of the oft-quoted saying by the Greek mathematician, Archimedes, "Give me a place to stand and I will move the world.” The emphasis in this statement is on a place to stand. The fact is that if we don’t have solid ground under our feet emotionally, then any technique we apply, whether it be a relaxation method, traditional psychotherapy, EFT, or any other intervention, suffers.

EFT practitioners are familiar with the phenomenon of working with a client and being able to help that person substantially reduce their stress about a certain issue, only to have them come back the next week simply overwhelmed by new issues. When this happens in my practice I am reminded of a child building a sand castle by the sea. As soon as they build the castle, the next wave comes in and washes it away. The child then rebuilds their castle, only to have the next wave wash it away again, and this happen repeatedly – it is an unending process. Similarly, while EFT is brilliantly effective, if in addition we add the solid continuing support that meditation can supply, EFT's staying power is magnified many times and we avoid the “child’s sand castle” effect..

I will not describe here the simplified modern form of meditation that I use with EFT (I do that in detail elsewhere on this site see - LYNN put in link here). I simply want to point out that modern forms of meditation such as, for example, Clinically Standardized Meditation (CSM), the modern meditation method I developed for the New York Telephone Company, are so permissive in nature that they may be subjectively experienced as almost "effortless". Meditation of this sort is intrinsically pleasant and attracts the person to it; it is experienced more as a vacation from all cares once or twice a day than a chore or a "must".

The therapeutic benefits of simple forms of meditation are supported by extensive research (how I wish EFT research was that far along in terms of accumulation of scientific evidence!) -- but in addition to providing deep relaxation, meditation appears to help people in an area largely unaddressed by many other interventions. It can foster communication between the person and his or her own deepest self, quite apart from that person’s interactions with others or their environment; and EFT can do this as well (see for example my articles on “tapping in the positive with EFT” LYNN please link) and it may well be used much more extensively for that purpose in the future.

In a world where inner enrichment from any source is scarce, many people hunger for a more profound sense of self than is implicit in merely "getting along with others." They seek an awareness of their identity as being as distinct from their identity as doing. The inner communion of meditation as well as the quiet contemplative use of the “tapping in the positive” approach in EFT, are means of fulfilling this need in a way that promises to heal an aspect of the psyche that may be as needful as any other presently known.

A Special Form of Rest

Many people in our fast-paced society find it difficult if not impossible to truly rest during the day. Because meditation can supply a highly structured and effective form of enforced rest each day -- one that is easier for the average person to observe than are vague therapeutic prescriptions to "take it easy and get more rest" –– it has great value for many people. I find that “meditative rest” gives a more solid basis to my EFT work with clients. After commencing meditation, these people tend to become steadier emotionally and better able to handle any difficult problems that may arise during their EFT sessions. They are also more apt to bring up core problems to deal with during EFT, ones they might have felt unprepared to tackle before.

Meditation Reduces Anxiety Markedly

Although we frequently see EFT reduce anxiety dramatically, I find that it is only the person who consistently uses EFT every day to target their anxieties who, in the long run, becomes less prone to unreasonable fears in general ( i.e. who overcomes generalized anxiety). Unfortunately not too many people have the persistence needed to chip away at overwhelming anxiety using a targeted technique such as EFT, and it is very valuable to help such people get a running start on their anxiety-reduction by using a global technique such as meditation to reduce their overall level of anxiety. Since meditation does not target a specific problem the way EFT does, it allows the entire body, mind and spirit to find a peaceful space to be in so that EFT can do its work.

If a client’s anxiety level is too high to sustain the gains we have made with EFT for a long enough time to allow them to “take hold”, I usually teach that person Clinically Standardized Meditation (CSM) and we often see the benefits of doing this within the first week. At that point, the regular practice of meditation can turn the tide in my EFT work with that person. It can change the client who is too distressed to know which issue to tackle first, into a calmer and more focused person. When that happens, I then have someone “to work with” in our therapy sessions instead of having to rescue my client repeatedly from a state of deep anxiety. Regular meditation can therefore be a great help in sustaining the benefits of EFT.

For Physical Illness

Another area where I find the use of meditation combined with EFT to be extremely valuable is for stress-related illness. Gary Craig has taught us a great deal about the possibilities of using EFT in this area and the advantages of adding meditation to the therapeutic “mix” for this purpose are impressive.

Research shows that many stress-related illnesses respond extremely well to meditation. These range from bronchial asthma to high blood pressure, to heart conditions, to high cholesterol, and many of the addictions, to name but a few. Treating a physical condition with EFT and meditation (a winning combination in my estimation), the person gets help from two different directions at once; EFT targets the core issues that need to be dealt with, and meditation lends both physiological balance and spiritual support to this process.

Sleep Problems May Need a Combination of Both Techniques

Sleep problems have been shown by research and clinical reports to be so responsive to meditation that if I have to decide whether to use meditation or EFT to start with for this condition, I usually choose meditation as the first line of attack because of its remarkable physiological relaxing effect. Research has shown that meditation has an excellent ability to counteract insomnia and my clinical experience strongly confirms this. However, eventually I tend to use both methods combined for this purpose. Meditation gives the person a quieter and deeper sleep, often quite soon after they learn it, and EFT can then target specific bouts of wakefulness and deal with the deeper problems in the person’s life that may be causing the insomnia in the first place. Again, a winning combination.

Meditation’s Energy Increase Can Assist EFT

For many people, meditation results in a surge of deeply nourishing energy which, if they meditate daily, becomes part of their life from that point on. This results in a lessened need for daytime naps, increased physical stamina, increased productivity, the dissolving of writers or artists’ block, and sometimes the release of unsuspected creative potential. I find that as we work on specific blocks to creativity using EFT, adding meditation to the client’s life can be extremely useful to open up their creativity in general. It can assist targeted EFT sessions by working continuously night and day to dissolve the underlying block. Again, the two methods can work synergistically to achieve remarkable results.

Lessening of Self-Blame

A little-known effect of meditation is the lessening of inappropriate self blame often reported by meditators. This can result in an impressive change from self castigating to self accepting and self nourishing behavior. While we can tackle the specifics of a client’s self image problems with EFT, the addition of meditation –– a time when the person is in close communion with a deeper part of themselves that is totally nonjudgmental – can assist profoundly. I often watch with wonder as a person becomes less self critical after they take up meditation and often develops a simultaneous increase in tolerance for the human frailties of others. This makes it easier for them to tackle more sensitive issues with EFT because self-blame is no longer getting in the way of their doing so. Meditation can therefore be of great assistance to EFT when a tendency toward self blame is excessive–– one technique complements the other.

Meditation Makes Previously Buried Emotions More Accessible

Another way that mediation can help progress with EFT stems from the fact that those who commence meditation often find hidden emotions coming to the surface. Meditators often report experiencing pleasure, sadness, anger, love, and other emotions more fully than they did before and sometimes they experience emotions which had previously been unavailable to them, or recover buried memories that are emotionally charged. These memories or emotions can then be worked on productively with EFT.

Increased Sense of Identity

People who meditate regularly often report that they have become more aware of their own opinions after commencing meditation, that they are not as easily influenced by others as they were before, and that they can arrive at decisions more quickly and easily. They may also be able to sense their own needs more accurately, and therefore become more outspoken and self assertive and more able to stand up for their own rights effectively. This natural flowering of a sense of self and of one’s own genuine rights works to assist EFT by allowing the person to tackle self-assertion and self-esteem issues much more quickly with EFT than they might otherwise do.

I find that in their EFT sessions, the person now tends to bring up core issues more readily and to have more courage dealing with them than they did before. They may also be more willing to address issues of self assertion with EFT where before they may have felt that this would be futile.

Ability to Separate From Others Where Necessary

One result of the increased sense of identity that comes with meditation is the person’s ability to separate from significant others when such a separation is called for. Meditation can be dramatically effective for counteracting pathological bereavement reactions, impending separation or divorce, the anticipated loss of children who are growing up and will soon leave home, etc. EFT can then be used to zero-in on specific painful thoughts associated with the impending (or actual) loss, and change them to positive and appreciative thoughts. The soothing effects of meditation can be an enormous help as it works in the background and we apply EFT in the foreground.

Marked Lowering of Irritability

Many meditating people become far less critical in their personal relationships within a relatively short time after commencing meditation. A large-scale study of CSM meditation at the New York telephone company, in which over 5,000 employees were taught this method, showed that a marked lessening of irritability and shortness of temper" was one of the most appreciated results of meditation.

I find it extremely useful to add meditation to a client’s EFT treatment if impulsive outbursts or chronic irritability are an important part of the picture. It is extremely useful to obtain the general lowering of irritability that comes with meditation so that we can move more easily from issue to issue with EFT.

Conclusions

To sum up the use of meditation together with EFT, we might say that this combination allows the person to approach any problem from two different angles at once –– the global approach of meditation melding with the specific approach of EFT, each technique augmenting the other. And, as the old saying goes,”The whole is (often) more than the sum of its parts”.

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For more information, Dr. Carrington’s book, “The Book of Meditation” or on her audio training series teaching Clinically Standardized Meditation (CSM)

EFT Master, Dr. Patricia Carrington